An Everything Post.

It has been a LONG time since I have been on here so this could be super long..

Where to begin.. Hmm.. Well, I guess a little update on the kids. So, Avery is doing OK. She has pretty much been on antibiotics since she was 2 months old because the ear infections won't stay away for more than 2 or 3 days. Boo.. But the big surgery is coming up soon so we are super excited (and I am super terrified now knowing what recovery is like from the first surgery. Yikes.) but hopefully getting the palate repaired will fix all kinds of issues (once we get through the recovery that is). Like, I tried to start her on baby food. She will eat a little but once it starts coming out of her nose she is done. I don't blame her... Non of us like the feeling of food (or whatever) coming out of our nose. She is really liking the little gerber puffs but she sneezes chunks of those out too so, whatever... I've decided I'm not going to try much (or get upset about the lack of things she can do/eat) until the palate is repaired. Anyway, she is clapping her hands and so so so close to crawling.. I think it will be any day now. I can't believe how fast she has grown up. I feel like I totally missed the "new baby" stage with her because of everything going on but it is what it is. She makes us laugh constantly and has been a huge blessing to our family.

Maddox is the man. He is so much fun and his imagination amazes me sometimes. He still loves everything  CARS. He loves his little sister and I think he can't wait until she is a little older so he can really start playing with her. Maddox is very particular and is a very good listener. He is really good at cleaning up (when he wants to) and it is kind of funny how (somewhat) OCD he is. He is starting pre-school and a soccer league. I can't believe it! He is my little buddy....

So, we had a busy summer as usual.. Let me see if I can remember that far back... :) It all started with us going to Texas to visit my mom. Maddox was pretty excited.... The day I told him we were going to get on an airplane to go to Texas he said "I'll be right back Mom.." and this is what he looked like when he came down the stairs..

We did a lot of lounging by the pool, hanging out with family, and just plain relaxing!!! From there we flew into San Diego. We had a  BLAST in San Diego for the 4th of July. The BEST part was seeing Heather and little baby Holly.

We also enjoyed a little beach time and visiting with more friends and family!

This is a random picture of Maddox on a turtle. A real turtle. Tommy's cousin has this big guy in his back yard.. I think its pretty cool!

 So, after San Diego I came home for 4 days. Thats right, I had been out of town for 3 weeks and then came home for FOUR DAYS before we made the trek up to Idaho. I went a little crazy. Idaho was good. It was hard, especially for Tommy but we tried to make the best of it. We were able to stop at our friends and hang out for a few hours. There Maddox got to do all kinds of fun things, like riding a horse.. He got pretty brave and even let the horse trot for a while. He really loved it!

Since we've been home we have just been trying to hang out as much as possible! We spent a lot of time by the pool and just doing fun summer things. I can't tell you how much I LOVE the "good days".
Here is Maddox playing in the rain. We had bought this Lightning McQueen umbrella a few weeks ago and he was praying for rain. So much so that one night Tommy went out and turned the sprinklers on so that he could use his umbrella. Hopefully he will get some more use out of it..

This was just a cute picture. We were taking the usual stroll around Costco and Maddox had his arm around Avery. They love each other and it makes me SO happy to watch them together.

This is just a cute picture of Miss Avery. 

So life settled down for a bit but now I am looking at my Calendar and freaking out a little bit at what the next month looks like for me. Eeek! But, we will get through it, we always do! It is amazing how much we have all grown this year. We have been through a lot but I love thinking about how much we have learned and learned to lean on one another and also the Savior. My testimony has grown so much. The power of prayer is amazing. I know that we have some pretty special angels helping us through and I feel them often. I love the gospel!!!!